See a side-by-side
rendering of the Task Force and City counter/compromise plan in #3, the
next in this series.

What
they were saying in July, 2003...by Gary Ossewaarde

Coastal
engineer Charles Shabica, hired by the Task Force, said: "There's
no question in my mind that these structures can be rebuilt." (Shabica's
cost estimate is $17.1 million, enough under the city's estimate for
its plan (which has fewer ramp and stair features) to give wiggle room.)

Greg
Lane, Task Force spokesman, said: "We can rebuild this, we can
engineer this, we can afford this." Also
that the focus should now be on working with the city. "We really
need to be working with the city because otherwise we're fighting with
the city and when this community fights with the city, it ain't pretty.
The city does not want that and this community does not want that. We
want to work with David Doig."

John
Vinci, renowned restorer and architect, said: " I absolutely agree
it's doable. It's all a matter of intelligence and how you spend your
money. If you have a community that cares to do the right thing, then
why don't you listen to them?...I've been fighting for preservation
since I was 19 or 20, and there's been so few successes. When you're
on the brink of a success it's really important."

Jack
Spicer of the Task Force said, "With the concessions that have
been made so far, we're literally eight feet apart in terms of compromise."

Meanwhile,
the city does not intend to proceed until at least next spring
according to park district superintendent David Doig and spokesperson
Julian Green. Green added This property is very important from a historic
sense and an aesthetic sense to the hyde Park community. We do not want
to go forward with something that the community will not be happy with...
Certainly if they have addressed those engineering and structural issues
that's something we are willing to take a look at."

One point
of contention is that of addressing the structural concerns, as
mentioned by Mr. Green, above, no matter how much many believe "it's
not about the engineering but about politics". The July 13 Full
Report (in Save
the Point) gives a point by point answer; the short
version outlines the design particulars and cost items. The engineering
includes stable adherence of concrete and limestone and
the material and bracing under the revetment. For a view
of the Task Force plan, see Point
Access Plan coverage, click Cross SectionViews in the page index. The July 13 cross-section view
shows reinforced concrete slab and not just compacted stone fill under
the promenade. The city said that fill is too unstable even with steel
sheet wall, piles, and a concrete promenade. The city has not released
a cross section or other engineering view to the public in the past one
and a quarter year although it has released such for most other sections
of the eight-miles to be rebuilt.

The
view of many, this writer observes, is that they care much less
what is under the revetment (so long as it holds up) than about what the
revetment looks like and its usefulness and more about safety than access
(although they want that access to be easy for persons of all and varied
abilities and think stairs are safer than ramps). The dilemma is that
if the city is given a head to do "extreme engineering" underneath,
that will balloon the cost and leave little for making the "look"
and "usefulness" right—Then we're back to ruining the
Point to save it.

This
plan goes well beyond the city plan for access while combining essential
engineering design from the Corps and Galvin plans. Wheelchair
access is provided without switchbacks around the entire Point from both
ends and from a ramp at the east end. (These access points also serve
as unobtrusive drainage swales). Other, gradually stepped access routes
friendly to both the public and to those with various abilities (including
walker-using) is provided at other points. Safe, easy access points into
the water is also provided especially on the north end. The plan provides
for safe water access regardless of water level within known historic
range. The plan does not, however, provide full access along every step-level
of the limestone steps. That is not possible while keeping limestone steps
and is considered by experts and persons with disabilities both unsafe
and an open invitation to bikes and roller blades where they really shouldn't
safely go. (So far, no one has found a way to discourage swarms of cyclists
on the promenade under either the city or Task Force plan although some
solutions are being considered.)

The
plan also details design pointing to practical engineering solutions
for revetment reconstruction utilizing limestone blocks at all visible
vertical surfaces. The plan does replace wooden cribs with concrete and
steel--an essential concession to the city that the Task Force believes
is necessary and can be done without compromising the look and experience
of the Point-- and extends the revetment outward with a new ribbon of
promenade (especially noticeable on the south side) of parallel 5-foot
wide (hopefully tinted and textured) concrete (for access) and sloped/curbed
limestone cap blocks pointing outward on the outside (for strength, safety
and looks). Steel will be covered to its top with descending limestone
toe-stone blocks or with posts (in deeper waters) on the outside edge.
The full feel of limestone will remain. The plan leaves large sections
of the south side in back of the new promenade alone except for filling
voids. The existing east end platform is kept, filled, and girdled on
the outside. The north side will be totally rebuilt. Assurance is given
that trees above the revetment will not have to be disturbed. This plan
will not be nearly as cheap as Mr. Galvin's earlier proposal, but the
Task Force hopes the cost is less or comparable to the Corps/city's. Getting
a a costing-out is in process by another engineering design firm, Charles
Shabica.

Point
rehab held off until next year, says parks CEO

Hyde Park Herald, June
29, 2003. By Maurice Lee

Chicago Park District Superintendent
David Doig announced Monday tha there was "no way" construction would
begin on Promontory Point in 2003. Doig also said the park district, working
with the Southeast Chicago Commission, would present renderings for the project
within the "next couple of weeks."

Two weeks ago, Doig was
widely quoted as saying construction on the Point would begin in the fall to
meet the 2005 deadline stipulated in the park district's agreement with the
Army Corps of Engineers. But on Monday, Doig reversed himself, saying here was
too much work left to begin the project any sooner than the beginning of next
year.

"There's been some
confusion on this point, but we're not going to be able to start work on the
project until early 2004," said Doig.

Doig's relaxed timeline
buys time for those working against the city's plan to rehab the Point with
concrete and steel revetments. The Community Task Force for Promontory Point,
which has been fighting to preserve the Point's limestone revetments, praises
the new timeline. Task Force member Greg Lane said the softening of the park
district's stance opens the door to greater collaboration between the community
and the park district, and slows down the clock on negotiations.

"That's great,"
said Lane. "This opens up real opportunities.."

Doig also agreed to a SECC
proposal to publicly present renderings to the community of the city's plan
ford the Point within a few weeks. But Doig made it clear the park district
would work with the "entire" community—not exclusively the Task
Force— through the SECC.

But according
to Lane, regardless as to how the park district works with the community, the
important thing is that it does.

"It's important
for the park district to work with all the stakeholders in the community, not
just the Task force," said Lane. "And we plan to work with them as
well."

Promontory Point rocks
get reprieve

Chicago Tribune, July 14,
2003. By Brett McNeil

As a Hyde Park
community group continued to press its case that a South Side peninsula's 70-year-old
limestone lake wall can be repaired rather than replaced, city officials Sunday
said they have backed off plans to begin construction on the Promontory Point
project this fall.

"We don't
see construction beginning until next spring," Park District spokesman
Julian Green said. "This property is very important from a historic sense
and an aesthetic sense to the Hyde Park community. We do not want to go forward
with something that the community will not be happy with."

...At an outdoor
news conference Sunday on the Point, where a blue-green Lake Michigan served
as backdrop, the task force released its latest and most complete plan for salvaging
the peninsula's limestone breakwater.

With a $17,1 million
price tag, the alternate plan calls for preserving the weathered limestone blocks
were possible, and otherwise replacing them with newly quarried stones, to maintain
the lakeshore's historic look between Garfield Drive and 57th Street.

The group's plan
also calls for steel pilings to be installed in front of existing but badly
aged wooden protective piling, and for a concrete pathway to provide access
to the water for disabled park-goers along an existing lake will promenade.

"We can build
this, we can engineer this, we can afford this," said greg Lane, a spokesman
for the ...Task Force...

The city's concrete-and-steel
replacement wall fo the Point, designed by STS Consultants of Vernon Hills,
will cost an estimated $22 million, the park district's Green said.

An earlier version
of the task force plan, released May 1, was criticized by the city a s unworkable.
The design unveiled sunday offered a point-by-point response to those concerns,
including whether the group's proposed lake wall would be pounded apart by crashing
waves.

"There's
no question in my mind that these structures can be rebuilt," said Charles
Shabica, a coastal engineer hired by the task force.

Frank Heitzman,
an Oak Park architect, who helped draft the task force plan, said it was guided
by a spirit of preservation.

"Preservation
means don't do anything until you absolutely have to do it, then do repair first,"
Heitzman said. "If you have to do more than repair, then restore."

...A Department
of Environment spokesman declined to comment on the newly unveiled plan until
officials have a chance to review it. Green said Doig would likely respond to
the task force plan Tuesday.

Coverage
and assessment of the May 1 preliminary report (access) in Hyde Park Herald,
March 26 and May 7, 2003

[Ed. note: The
impression is given that the University has been silent or turned its back rather
than engaged on the Point. Indeed, the Herald explicitly took this position
in a previous issue and a recent issue. Indeed, this March 26 article seems
to take a broad view of what the University could-do-if-it-would-do. This writer
wishes to acknowledge the key role of University officers took in 2001 in bringing
the city to the table and in brokering a compromise plan, one which did not
fly but was as far as the city would go at that time. The University has not
been aloof behind the scenes since. In recent weeks, the University has become
more active on the issue. Not all of what the University and its community arm/ally
SECC have undertaken is revealed in the article below, and it would be inappropriate
to consider what persons said in confidence that they will or may do. The March
26 article also goes quite far in construing task force members thoughts about
their relations and conversations with the University. Once past this controversy,
the article is an excellent summary of the plan and where matters stand. The
May 7 article, on the other hand, substantially tones down the reluctance of
the Mayor and Superintendent Doig to compromise, as given in the following editorial,
in the May 2 Reader, and in personal communications. Gary
Ossewaarde

Activists seek
university's backing in Point dispute

Hyde Park Herald,
March 26, 2003. by Maurice Lee

After more than
two years of silence, the University of Chicago may be taking its first tentative
steps into the brouhaha surrounding the Promontory Point Revetment Project.

The move comes
as the Promontory Point Task Force continues to build community support for
an alternative Promontory Point reconstruction plan.

Last week, the
South East Chicago Commission, a community watchdog funded by the university,
met with members of the Promontory Point Task Force to view the Task Force's
plans for the repair and restoration of the Point.

For the past two
years the clout-heavy university has been noticeably absent from the highly
charged discourse on the Point, and community members hope the meeting signals
a shift for the university.

"I can't
speak for [the university or the SECC], but the indications to me were they
were impressed with the presentations," Hyde Park Historical Society member
Devereux Bowly, Jr. [said]. "I am most hopeful that their views will be
positive and they will help persuade the city and the park district."

While officials
from both the SECC and the university refused to comment specifically on the
Task Force plan until after the Chicago Park District has an opportunity to
respond next month, it was clear the plan raised some eyebrows.

"There are
still some open questions that need to be answered, however I would say that
the plans have progressed dramatically over the last couple of years,"
said SECC president Valerie Jarrett.

University vice-president
for Community and Governmental Affairs Hank Webber added he was encouraged that
consensus on the issue could be reached in the not-too-distant future.

"This clearly
an issue that many people in our community think is important," said Webber.
"I am certainly hopeful that over the next few months there could be a
resolution."

The Task Force
plan for Promontory Point is according to Task force member Jack Spicer, a "concession"
between the city's plan and the community's wishes--integrating accessibility,
functionality, and aesthetic concerns into its overall design.

Whereas the park
district-Army Corps of Engineers plan calls for the replacement of the existing
limestone and wood revetment with a larger concrete and steel version, the Task
Force plan calls for a minimal impact to the original structure.

Under the Task
Force plan, construction crews would only repair the stone revetment where needed.
Much of the concrete platform located at the far eastern tip of the Point and
a nearly 600-foot-long stretch of the Point's south face located near 57th Street
Beach would only receive basic repairs, according to the plan.

Once the construction
is completed on the step revetment, crews will extend the lowest level out an
additional 10 feet into the lake to create a promenade to encircle the Point
and then install steel sheet pilings around the perimeter to protect the structure
from the lake's wave action.

The steel pilings
will be hidden in the design by limestone capstones when viewed from land, and
by either a toe-stone system of stacked limestone blocks underneath the water
or by wood pilings.

The toe-stone
system, which will be set close in to the shore, and the wood pilings, which
will be installed in the deeper waters at the east end of the Point, will act
as shock absorbers to diminish the energy waves can transmit into the revetment,
extending its life. The toe-stones will also act as a final set of steps to
allow swimmers to walk into the water.

Task Force plans
include several points for both handicapped and standard access to the promenade
level, and three locations for access to the water and a "submerged beach."
Set on the north face of the Point, the submerged beach feature will allow disabled
visitors to the Point to directly access the lake for recreation. An ADA-certified
ramp would guide visitors in wheelchairs into the water, while persons with
difficulty navigating sloped surfaces can descend to the water on a set of stairs.

While many of
the functional details of the task force design, including steps, ramps and
a five-foot wide wheelchair path running the length of the promenade, would
be constructed of concrete to ensure uniform surfaces for both normal and handicapped
users, the structural and aesthetic elements of the new revetment would retain
the Point's classic limestone blocks.

So far, Spicer
said the Task Force's plan for the park has been well received by the community.
Encouraged by the plan's reception by the SECC, Spicer suggests that as more
Hyde Park organizations begin to support the plan, the ball has now been lobbed
into the park district's court to either accept the plan or put forth a new
one of their own.

"I think
they really treated us well and the impression we left with was positive,"
said Spicer. "I think that the general impression I got was that the burden
is now on the park district.

[Below: first]
: The Promontory Point Community Task Force Plan for the limestone revetment
at the Point calls for limestone to be incorporated into all visible faces of
the revetment. In the plan, concrete is used to provide uniform accessibility
surfaces.

[second]: A close-up
of the plan's submerged beach feature. Networks of stairs and ramps will allow
universal access to the water for Point visitors. Toe-stones set in the waters
surrounding the Point offer additional protection for the new revetment and
convenient access to the water for swimmers.Herald March 26

Pullaway view of above
and just to northwest of the magnified section above, from July 13 plan.

Below: closeup
schematic looking northwest at the north side abilities access and submerged
beach water access. As rendered in July 13 Plan Presentation (short)Herald,
May 7.

(Not reproduced
in the articles above:) View of the east ("coffins") part of the Point
("E" in the Plan) from the May1/July 13 Task Force Plan. How much
this section needs to be replaced is key to whether the Task Force July 13 estimate
of $17.1 is viable.

Not
part of the articles, but here is a cross-section view of Segment B) west-north
side) engineering concepts in the July 13 final Task Force Plan. The Task Force
here (as distinct from the preliminary Heitzman-Tjaden May 1 plan) uses a reinforced
concrete slab under the promenade above stone fill. The Park District
maintained that stone fill would not be feasible and would be unstable even
with steel sheet wall and wood piles in front. It remained to be seen July 18
whether the change (included in the $17.1 million Shabica cost estimate) will
gain acceptance. The same with the substitution for toe stone: up to 5 2-stacks
of limestone blocks going down into the water from the promenade with a filter
fabric in front. Note that these are design and feasibility concepts. Note again
how much further the Point will extend out into the lake under both the city
and Task Force plans.

Point
plan praised in HP, but parks chief stonewalls

Hyde Park Herald,
May 7, 2003. by Caitlin Devitt

The Community
Task Force for Promontory Point unveiled a comprehensive plan last week it hopes
will serve as an alternative to the city's rehab designs for the Point, even
as the park district chief warned the South East Chicago Commission (SECC) that
the city was no closer to compromise than before.

After months of
speaking with church groups, condo associations and community organizations,
the Task Force last week held a public meeting at the Hyde Park Union Church
presenting an "evolving" limestone-preserving plan that counters the
city's concrete-and-steel based designs. The plan, detailed extensively in the
March 26 2003 Herald, includes prairie-style limestone steps with winding
concrete ramps for enhanced wheelchair access and a promenade that extends up
to 10 feet further into the lake.

But despite near-unanimous
praise for the plan from the more than 150 residents at the meeting, many worried
aloud over the city's reportedly frosty reception to the plan earlier in the
week.

According to some
who attended a SECC meeting Monday, April 28, Chicago Park District Superintendent
David Doig reported the park district was still up in the air on the alternative
plan, but that the SECC committee should not get its hopes up for a limestone-preserving
plan.

"He was negative
because he didn't want people to think it was a done deal," said Sue Freehling,
a member of the SECC executive committee who was at the meeting. She said she
was surprised he came to the meeting just to announce he was undecided.

"It was shocking
that there was nothing to talk about," she said. "He did say he didn't
have to listen to us...and he threatened that the point would fall into the
lake because they could lose the funding," Freehling said.

Neither Doig nor
a park district spokesman returned repeated phone calls from the Herald.

At the Union Church
meeting, three days after Doig's report to the SECC, the question for residents
quickly became: how do we get city officials to take the plan seriously?

"The political
problem is our real problem," said Task Force member Greg Lane, who reported
the tale of North Siders fighting the city's rehab plan at Belmont Harbor, where
after a year of meetings, the city finally refused to alter its plan and crushed
the limestone rocks within a week. The story drew gasps from the audience.

But Lane and others
on the Task Force emphasized their hope for working with the city to negotiate
a final deal to preserve the Point's limestone.

"We need
to work with them," said Lane, encouraging residents to write to the mayor.
After gathering public comments on the plan for the next 45 days, the Task force
will call for a June "summit" with city officials, according to Lane.

"It's time
to move forward," said Lane, ending with a question to city officials:
"Will you sit down with us and resolve it? Will you show up at our summit?"

The Task Force's
limestone based plan will be on display at the Medici, 1357 E. 57th St., and
at the 55th Street Hyde Park Co-op, 1526 East 55th Street, and on the Internet
at www.savethepoint.org.

Mayor's silence
on Point speaks volumes—editorial

Hyde Park Herald,
May 7, 2003

Meigs Field. The
words send chills down the spines of community activists across the city, and
Hyde Parkers are no exception. "What if the mayor draws big Xes on the
Point?" someone asked last week at a community meeting. "What if the
bulldozers come in the middle of the night?" asked another.

Nothing seems
that far fetched after the middle-of-the-night X-ed out runways of Meigs Field,
a heavy-handed move by the mayor that was, remarked a resident, "discouraging."

Discouraging indeed.

Parks superintendent
David Doig met last week to discuss the limestone-preserving Point plan with
the executive committee of the South East Chicago Commission, the development
arm of the University of Chicago. He made the trip just to tell the SECC that
he had not yet made up his mind on whether to accept the plan, but according
to sources, he declared, "I don't have to listen to Hyde Park if I don't
want to." A childish thing to say, but he is right, he does not have to
listen to us. There is only one man he has to listen to. And that's pretty discouraging,
especially considering that we pay Doig's salary as well as the salary of the
man who tells Doig what to do.

There is an anecdote
in an article in last week's Chicago Reader about Hyde Park's Community
Task Force, a group that has been leading the fight to save the limestone rocks
and has spent $50,000 coming up with an alternative plan to save the Point's
limestone. Mayor Daley the story goes, was at a North Side breakfast meeting
when a resident brought up the lakefront rehab plan and mentioned those working
to save Belmont Harbor were working with Hyde Parkers. According to the story,
Daley responded with something like, "As to those people in Hyde Park,
they're not getting anything. Promontory Point can sink into the lake, and God
help them if it does."

This is getting
downright depressing.

Besides that little
anecdote in the Reader, the mayor has been noticeably silent on the
issue, managing to avoid what should be a key part of his job: to negotiate
and resolve conflicts in the city. But for a quiet man, he certainly knows how
to make himself heard with messages like the X-ing over Meigs.

Doig's pessimistic
report to the SECC last week was a message from the mayor. And when Department
of Environment commissioner Marcia Jimenez claims there is not limestone available
for the Point, it's a message from the mayor. These officials are careful, and
we can be pretty sure their messages have been vetted by the mayor.

Maybe the mayor
is testing Hyde Parkers' reactions to repeated refusals and avoidance, or maybe
he is truly dead set against the plan. Either way, he should realize it will
be difficult to demolish the limestone without having Hyde Parkers out at the
Point blocking bulldozers within a few hours. The mayor is not the only one
who can say no.

Alderman Leslie
Hairston (5th), in spite of her efforts, cannot move Daley to publicly acknowledge
Hyde Parkers' fight against the city's Point plan. And the University of Chicago
has turned its back on the neighborhood by not even trying to move the mayor
to acknowledge the most important Hyde Park battle in years.

With the $50,000
raised from Hyde Parkers and grants, the task force had come up with a plan
to preserve the limestone rocks while rehabbing and strengthening the park in
a number of ways (see story, page 1). It's a good plan, superior to the city's
aesthetically, financially and environmentally, improving on original plans
for accessibility, utility and maintenance.

The limestone-based
plan will be available for a 45-day comment period and then will be published.
After publication, the task force will call for a summit with city officials.
The man who has spent his entire professional life on the public payroll should
meet with his constituents on this important issue.

Mr. Mayor, it
is difficult to represent us if you refuse to even acknowledge us.